I don’t think #SeymourStein (RIP) designed this #SireRecords logo, but thanks to all the acts he helped sign, I played enough Sire releases in my childhood that I would immediately catch the optical illusion where the large “S” would change to revolving backwards inside the logo while orbiting the center. (It’s a far far better logo than the “Olde English” 60s logo.)

Seymour Stein, music mogul who discovered Madonna, Talking Heads and more, dies aged 80 https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/apr/03/seymour-stein-music-mogul-who-discovered-madonna-talking-heads-and-more-dies-aged-80

This is saddening.

When I was fifteen years old and started to write about music, a friend and I started a fanzine. I wrote wherever I could and asked for CDs and tapes that we could review. I wrote to Sire Records via email which was then a rare thing. Most people just didn't have email access.

A couple of months passed without hearing anything but suddenly I had a box to pick up at my local Swedish post office. It was from Sire and contained a lot of weird promos from bands like Bigod 20 and Aphex Twin. There was also a machine–typed letter signed by Stein. Among other things, the letter said Aphex Twin would become big and hoped we could spare a few words on at least Aphex and wished us good luck with our fanzine.

It's the nicest music-exec letter I've ever received.

I've never stopped spreading the gospel about Aphex Twin and I listened and wrote the absolute shit out of every single and album we received from Sire.

Such a nice gesture made me really happy and confident that I could make a living from writing.

I'm aware that the letter could have been written by some assistant but I'll hang on to the symbol value.

Seymour Stein was instrumental in launching the careers of bands like Ramones, Blondie, Madonna, and the American careers of The Smiths, The Cure, and Depeche Mode, among others.

#SeymourStein #SireRecords #AphexTwin #TheSmiths #TheCure #DepecheMode

GitHub has removed the ability to access youtube-dl's source code due to a DMCA request by the RIAA

... The clear purpose of this source code is to (i) circumvent the technological protection measures used by authorized streaming services such as YouTube, and (ii) reproduce and distribute music videos and sound recordings owned by our member companies without authorization for such use. We note that the source code is described on GitHub as “a command-line program to download videos from YouTube.com and a few more sites.” ...

https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2020/10/2020-10-23-RIAA.md

Micah F. Lee (EFF/The Intercept @micahflee https://nitter.net/micahflee/status/1319746131723628544?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

"RIAA blitz takes down 18 GitHub projects used for downloading YouTube videos"
https://www.zdnet.com/article/riaa-blitz-takes-down-18-github-projects-used-for-downloading-youtube-videos/

HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24872911

Reddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/jgub36/youtubedl_just_received_a_dmca_takedown_from_riaa/
https://old.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/jgtzum/youtubedl_repo_had_been_dmcad/
https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/jgubfx/youtubedl_github_repo_taken_down_due_to_dmca/
https://old.reddit.com/r/youtubedl/comments/jgttnc/youtubedl_github_repository_disabled_due_to_a/

Reddit search: https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/search/?q=youtube-dl+dmca&sort=relevance&t=all

Nitter/Birbsite: https://nitter.net/search?f=tweets&q=youtube-dl+riaa+dmca&since=&until=&near=

Censorship, propaganda, surveillance, and targeted manipulation are inherent characteristics of monopoly: https://joindiaspora.com/posts/7bfcf170eefc013863fa002590d8e506

RMS, "The Right to Read" (1997): https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.en.html

Remember that the RIAA is a bad-publicity-deflection cartel of its major members. These are:
#Sony
#SonyMusic
#UniversalMusic
#AtlanticRecords
#Disney
#ExcelerationMusic
#InterscopeGeffen
#NonesuchRecords
#PartisanRecords
#ProvidentMusic
#SireRecords
#TommyBoy
#WarnerMusic

#DMCA #youtubedl #RIAA #MPAA #github #Censorship #Surveillance #Propaganda #Manipulation #Monoply #CensorshipPropagandaSurveillanceMonopoly #TheRightToRead #EFF